Blessed Tabvirwa

Force SSL/https using .htaccess and mod_rewrite

2011-11-30T08:23:00.002+02:00

I recently had to update a client's website to force the use of https on their site initially they wanted it for just a subcetion of the website and then later on they decided they wanted it for the whole site. Fortunately i found this useful htaccess/mod_rewrite tip off the web fairly quickly.

1. For a subsection of the website (assuming this is in its own folder) use the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} somefolder
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.domain.com/somefolder/$1 [R,L]

be sure to place the htaccess file inside the respective subfolder

2. For the whole website, use the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R,L]

make sure to place the htaccess file in the website's root folder

Hope this helps someone as it did me. :)

Till next time, happy coding.

Calling a php script from within java

2011-10-21T08:51:00.002+02:00

Recently i worked on a project that required me to modify an existing java app inline with changes in the API through which the java system communicated with a service provider's business logic.

After weeks of trying to get the Java to communicate with the new web service, and not wanting to change anything else inside the java program except the web service client bit, which i could get to work (due to issues i did not have time to further investigate :)). I therefore decided to write the client in PHP, using NuSoap, and then simply call the NuSoap client from within java which worked out much easier than i expected.

All i needed from the client was the response XML, which would then be handled using preexisting java code so below is extracts from the java program.

[CODE]
try
{
URL phpClient = new URL("my php url here");

try{

URLConnection yc = phpClient.openConnection();

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(
yc.getInputStream()));

String inputLine;
Integer count = 1;
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
this.result += inputLine;
}

in.close();
} catch(IOException e){
System.out.println(" web php/service error " + e.toString());
}
} catch(MalformedURLException nameOfTheException){
//
}
[/CODE]

Deleting Duplicate Rows in a MySQL Database

2011-02-28T11:12:00.002+02:00

Assuming the following bad table design:
CREATE TABLE bad_table2 (
id INT NOT NULL UNIQUE AUTO_INCREMENT,
name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO bad_table2(id,name) VALUES
(1,'Things Fall Apart'),
(2,'Things Fall Apart'),
(3,'The Famished Road'),
(4,'Things Fall Apart'),
(5,'The Famished Road'),
(6,'Thirteen cents'),
(7,'Thirteen cents');

I can remove duplicates easily with the following line:
alter ignore table bad_table2 add unique index `unique_index` (name);

And then remove the added index.
alter table bad_table2 drop index `unique_index`;

Source: Comment by Paul Swarthout @ databasejournal.com

Enable Classic ASP custom error pages

2011-02-07T13:10:00.004+02:00

After days of searching the web and nagging my host i finally came across this piece of code from here

It was just what i needed to show classic ASP custom error pages using the config file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><configuration> <system.webServer> <httpErrors> <remove statusCode="500" subStatusCode="100" /> <error statusCode="500" subStatusCode="100" prefixLanguageFilePath="" path="/error-500.asp" responseMode="ExecuteURL" /> </httpErrors> </system.webServer></configuration>

Javascript: reversing a string

2011-02-02T10:51:00.003+02:00


function strrev(str)
{ 
  if (!str) return ''; 
  var revstr=''; 
  for (i = str.length-1; i>=0; i--)   
      revstr+=str.charAt(i)
  return revstr;
}

alert(strrev("Hello World!"));

OR alternatively you can use split("") to
convert a string to an array, reverse() to
reverse the array, and join("") to convert
it back.

function strrev(str) 
{  
     return str.split("").reverse().join(""); 
}  

alert(strrev("Hello World!"));

PHP: Exporting a mySQL table to CSV

2010-08-03T12:24:00.001+02:00

$rsSearchResults = mysql_query($sql, $connDb) or die(mysql_error());

$out = '';
$fields = mysql_list_fields('dbname','tablename',$connDb);
$columns = mysql_num_fields($fields);

// Put the name of all fields
for ($i = 0; $i < $columns; $i++) {
$l=mysql_field_name($fields, $i);
$out .= '"'.$l.'",';
}
$out .="\n";

// Add all values in the table
while ($l = mysql_fetch_array($rsSearchResults)) {
for ($i = 0; $i < $columns; $i++) {
$out .='"'.$l["$i"].'",';
}
$out .="\n";
}
// Output to browser with appropriate mime type, you choose ;)
$filedate = date('d-m-Y');
header("Content-type: text/x-csv");
//header("Content-type: text/csv");
//header("Content-type: application/csv");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=filename-$filedate.csv");
echo $out;
exit;

If you wish to write the output to a file on the server instead then use file manipulation functions fopen() and fwrite()

Turn on php error reporting using code

2010-07-07T17:53:00.005+02:00

//To turn on PHP error reporting using code use the lines below

ini_set("display_errors","2");

error_reporting(E_ALL);

How to force your form to open in the top frame

2010-07-07T17:50:00.002+02:00

The typical way to do that is to add the script:

[javascript tag]

if (window != top) {
top.location.href = location.href;
}

[/javascript tag]

Put it as early in the head section as reasonable.

PHP: How to insert a string into another string

2010-06-21T10:52:00.002+02:00

$new_string=substr_replace($original_string, $insert_string, $at_position, 0);

How to generate mysql update sql statement from an excel document

2010-06-08T13:12:00.001+02:00

This assumes that you have a unique identifier in at least one of the columns.

1) In you source excel document insert a column and in that column we want to concatenate an update string similar to the example below:
="update mysql_table_name set fieldname = '"&A1&"',fieldname2='"&B1&"' where id = "&C1&";"

2) Copy this formula down to generate all the required update statements

3) Create another column, copy the recently generated column of fomulas, right click in the new column, choose "paste special" and select the "values" option

4) Copy the recently pasted values, i.e. the update sql statements into you mysql db query engine e.g. phpMyAdmin and run the queries. Your mysql table is now updated with the values from the excel sheet.

Not the most elegant way of doing things i know, but it worked for me on several occasions :)

document.form.submit is not a function

2010-05-12T14:06:00.001+02:00

This is because you have a function trying to call the form's submit() method, and at the same time you have a form element, (in most cases a button), which is called submit(). This causes a conflict in javascript, because the submit method is already bound to that element (button).

To solve the problem, simply change the name of the element(button). The submit() call in your javascript function should now work.

Get number of days from a given mysql date field

2010-02-22T10:59:00.005+02:00

Using mysql's inbuilt TO_DAYS() and CURDATE() functions one can determine the number of days from a given mysql date field to date.

SELECT date_field, CURDATE() AS Current_Date, (TO_DAYS( CURDATE() ) - TO_DAYS( date_field )) as difference FROM table_name

SAMPLE OUTPUT OF THIS WOULD BE :

date_field Current_Date difference
---------- ------------ ------------
2010-02-11 2010-02-22 11
2010-02-10 2010-02-22 12

Dreamweaver startup javascript errors

2010-02-19T10:09:00.004+02:00

"The following JavaScript error(s) occurred: At line 56 of file "C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration\Shared\Common\Scripts\dwscriptsExtData.js": ReferenceError: dwscripts is not defined."

If you are experiencing a JavaScript errors related to "dwscripts" (see above) or if you are receiving a "translators were not loaded" error message when Dreamweaver 8 is starting up then you may try the following recommendations from the Adobe site:

Remove the WinFileCache-7A9586CB.dat file from the Dreamweaver user configuration folder. If that doesn't solve it, then recreate the Dreamweaver user configuration folder.

Delete FileCache.dat files from the Dreamweaver user configuration folder.

Delete the WinFileCache-7A9586CB.dat, MacFileCache-BFE7CE2E.dat, or FileCache.dat file from the Dreamweaver user configuration folder. It is recommended to delete the FileCache.dat file if you are experiencing a JavaScript error related to "dwscripts" or if you are receiving a "translators were not loaded" error message. The string of characters after "FileCache-" may differ on your machine. The location of the FileCache.dat file depends your operating system and your version of Dreamweaver. Note that on Windows, the Application Data and AppData folders are hidden by default, so verify that your Windows Explorer folder options are set to View Hidden Folders.
Dreamweaver CS3 on Windows Vista:
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration

Dreamweaver CS3 on Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration

Dreamweaver 8 on Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration

Dreamweaver 8 on Windows Vista:
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration

Dreamweaver CS3 on Macintosh:
Mac HD/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver 9/

Dreamweaver 8 on Macintosh:
Mac HD/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Dreamweaver 8/

Source: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/191/tn_19105.html#dat

Javascript - how to continue text in next line

2010-02-16T13:07:00.005+02:00

var sometText = 'abc\
defghi';
alert(sometText);

This will not result in a javascript error because each time javascript encounters the single backslash, "\" it knows the statement continues on the next line.

Without the "\", Javascript will assume that the line has ended and give an "unterminated string constant" error.

"Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent"

2010-01-26T13:06:00.003+02:00

For the files that were giving me this error, they were saved with the encoding set to UTF-8 and not ANSI. Once I saved the PHP files as ANSI they started working.

I found this fix from this forum

Hope this helps someone

Example: mysql update with inner join

2009-10-07T02:22:00.002+02:00

UPDATE product
INNER JOIN product_price
ON product.productId = product_price.productId
SET product_price.price = product_price.price * 1.5
WHERE product.dateCreated < '2009-10-23'

NOTE: This applies to MySQL version 4.0 or higher

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

2009-07-08T18:05:00.000+02:00

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Terabytes Missing From The National Archives: Would the Cloud Be Safer? - ReadWriteEnterprise

2009-07-07T12:00:00.001+02:00

Terabytes Missing From The National Archives: Would the Cloud Be Safer? - ReadWriteEnterprise

Shared via AddThis

Javascript: search for a string withing another string

2009-06-26T13:23:00.005+02:00

//In this example i'm using regular expressions

var myRegExp = /find me/;
var string1 = "can you find me in this string?";
var matchPosition = string1.search(myRegExp);

if(matchPosition != -1){
//match was found on position matchPosition
}else{
//not found in string
}

Tech Meal: [GMAIL] - [PHP] - Send email using PHP with Gmail

2009-06-10T11:30:00.000+02:00

Tech Meal: [GMAIL] - [PHP] - Send email using PHP with Gmail: "php_openssl.d"

How to print the contents of a php page into a variable

2009-06-02T16:44:00.002+02:00

// To get the generated HTML
$source = file_get_contents("http://domain.net/path/to/script.php");

// To get everything including PHP source
$source = file_get_contents("/path/to/script.php");

Incorrect usage of UNION and ORDER BY

2009-05-28T11:53:00.001+02:00

A common problem when using the UNION command in MySQL is when you want to order the sets of data differently. If you do it incorrectly, you will see the error message:

Incorrect usage of UNION and ORDER BY

To solve the problem, wrap each individual SELECT statement in brackets as shown below:

(SELECT * FROM table1)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM table2)

How to group by a datetime field in mysql

2009-05-25T18:52:00.005+02:00

SELECT YEAR(datefield) Y, MONTH(datefield) M, DAY(datefield) D FROM yourtable
GROUP BY DAY(datefield)

PHP: Calculate Number of days between dates

2009-05-19T12:38:00.002+02:00

Now that timestamps have been reviewed to show you some easy way to take two days and return a total number of days. The example below will take an arbitrary date of April 4, 2008 and May 12, 2008 (the current date I wrote the article)

$time_A = strtotime("April 4, 2008"); $time_B=strtotime(now); $numdays=intval(($time_B-$time_A)/86400)+1;

The number of seconds in a day is 86400 and the calculations usually shorts you a day so thats why we add a 1. This is do the fact the now() returns the current time which is not a complete day.

source: http://www.bswebdev.com/2008/05/php-day-count-and-date-comparison/

Close window without the prompt message in IE7

2009-04-23T14:14:00.000+02:00

If you tried to close a window using javascript window.close() method in IE7, and as you may noticed a message will prompt "The Webpage you are viewing is trying to close the window. Do you want to close this window". Because of the security enhancements in IE7, you can't close a window unless it is opened by a script. So the walkaround will be to let the browser thinks that this page is opened using a script then closing the window as outlined below.

Create a javascript function which will be called to close the window

function CloseMe(){

window.open('','_self','');

window.close();

}

The code in bold is used to open a window in this case it's not defined into the current window. In this way, we let the browser thinks that the current window is opened using javascript, so when the window.close() is executed it will close it without the message being displayed.

You can now close the popup window by calling the CloseMe() function at the point where you want to close your page.

Hope this helps

mysql 'not a valid result resource' errors

2009-04-08T19:05:00.000+02:00

Here's what's going on with 'not a valid result resource' errors. Take the following example:

PHP Code:

 $query = 'SELECT * from table';
   
   $result = mysql_query($query);
   
   while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
   { echo $row['foo']; }

In the above, the mysql_query() function is sending the specific query to the database and returning a 'resource identifier', which is being set as the value of $result. These are not the results themselves -- if you echo $result at this point, you'll get 'Resource id #x'. The mysql_fetch_array() function in your while loop takes this resource identifier and creates an array of the actual db contents that you can use.

If your mysql_query() function fails to get a resource id, it returns a boolean FALSE instead. FALSE, of course, isn't a resource identifier, so when you try to pass it to mysql_fetch_array(), it will cough up the 'not a valid result resource' error. So all of you are getting failures in your mysql_query() function.

Using 'or die(mysql_error())' at the end of your mysql_query() call, will, instead of setting $result to FALSE, kill the script and, more importantly, return a more descriptive error message.

Probably 80%+ of the time, a failed mysql_query() is caused by a syntax error in the query itself. Be especially mindful of any variables you're using in your query -- if they're not being set correctly, they can cause a syntax error. A failure to connect to the database can also cause mysql_query() to fail, so keep that in mind. Either way, the mysql_error() function will give you more information.

My popular readings of the week

2009-04-02T18:21:00.000+02:00

Microsoft Preps Open-Source Apps Marketplace
Microsoft is in the process of building out a marketplace for open-source applications that could work like an equivalent to an app store for applications, services and support for open-source technology that runs on the Windows platform. At MIX09, Microsoft released several components of the Microsoft Web Platform, an integrated set of tools, servers and frameworks that work seamlessly together and interoperate with popular open-source applications and products that are used in the community. Microsoft is looking at Windows Azure as a potential distribution platform for these applications. read more ...

Microsoft Open Sources .NET MVC Framework
Further evidence of Microsoft's growing commitment towards interoperability and open source — the ASP.NET MVC source code has been released under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL). read more ...

Highly anticipated open-source releases coming in '09
When big companies release new software, they launch it with lots of hoopla: press tours, technical conferences, free T-shirts. Open-source projects, even the well-known ones, generally release their major new versions with a lot less fanfare. The FOSS (free and open-source software) community is often too busy coding and testing to bother with marketing, even when the new "point release" of the software is really remarkable. read more ...

More Stories

Welcome to my blog

2008-06-04T13:59:00.000+02:00

Who am I, What am i, where have i come from, where am i headed

Career Wise

Currently i am:

A Web Applications Analyst / Consultant at Innovative Solutions

Used to be

web application developer/consultant as BlueQube Intenet
web developer at webdev
the Projects Support Officer at Cyberplex Africa
an Analyst / Developer at Aerotel
a Developer at Ziscosteel

Ambition:

To become one of the leading web solutions provider in the SADC region

Specialties:

Prototyping (HTML, CSS, Javascipt), Web Development (PHP/mySQL, ASP/SQL SERVER, HTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX), ERP Research & Development, IIS/Apache setup and admin, SQL SERVER / mySQL / MS Access development (VBA), Macromedia Dreamweaver / Fireworks, Joomla, webERP, Informix SQL/4GL development, Basic Unix & linux commands, MS Office, MS Project

Interests:

chess, game / nature viewing, canoeing, computer gaming,

Groups and Associations:

Computer Society of Zimbabwe
PRINCE 2 (work in progress)